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This week I gained a whole new perspective on teaching. I am now a teacher-parent (or is it parent-teacher?). My newly minted 3 – year old son started full-time daycare on Monday. He went from being home with a caregiver having full attention, to being in a room of 18 students with 2 adults – slightly less than 1:1 attention he was used to throughout the day. To say it has been a smooth transition would be an absolute lie.
It’s the first time I’ve been the “parent” in the parent-teacher relationship and day 1 challenged me. I felt awful leaving the first day and wondered if we had made the right choice. I wanted to make excuses for behaviour, but I knew I didn’t want to be “that” parent. I also know that if he was at home, I would have disciplined the behaviour as well, so there was no reason to make excuses as it was inexcusable. I know kids are resilient and bounce back after some transition time, and I’ve seen it a lot with my own work, but it’s different when you are the parent.
The next day we went in, and the teachers were so cheerful to see my very apprehensive son that it immediately set him at ease. One of the teachers remembered an activity he enjoyed the day before and set him up doing that right away. My parent brain was going “that’s so sweet” as I left and headed myself to work and later, upon reflection, my teacher-brain went “she set my son up for success first thing, she’s creating a relationship with him, she’s learning about how he learns” and this whole experience got me thinking about what we do as teachers each start of a term, each start of a week, each start of a class to build relationships and set our students up for success. This then got me thinking that maybe I’m not the only teacher coming back from break thinking about curriculum outcomes, how many school days I have to get through them and all of the other “content” parts of my job. Maybe I’m not the only turkey-comatose adult needing a reminder to put relationships first in the next few weeks (then again, maybe I am….there was a lot of turkey going around).
It’s a pretty sweet gig this ‘teaching’ thing we have going on, isn’t it @mwilcox Well dome Momma, it sounds like you and your little guy are doing just fine !!!
@mwilcox Congratulations! I’ve been there and it gets a little easier day by day. I think some of the best teacher PD I’ve had has been because I have also become a parent. Wearing both hats allows for reflection that makes you a better parent as well as teacher.
How is your action plan coming along? I am looking forward to checking in with you on the 18th. Do you have any questions ? Feel free to reach out.
J
Well done Mary-Ellen, I echo the above comments, and add that it is so important to ‘see the other side’. Being a parent to two amazing (and amazingly different boys) highlights everyday how personalized and relational teaching must be in order to be successful!